The cure the various regulatory authorities have come up with is twofold, legislation that restricts the methods wholesalers may use, and regulations requiring wholesalers to hold real estate brokers license.  

Be careful out there....some of the new builds are not comparable to the old builds....many of the newer ones are all siding, no brick, no light fixtures or ceiling fans...just LED recessed lighting...no doorbell, no garage door opener, no attic stairs, one piece tubs, vs tiled baths, no landscaping, no trees, and on and on....they've taken out virtually every single cost.   

Once the deadline passes, start with the requisite escalation of legal/regulatory avenues to get them to comply.Hopefully the next PMC is more professional.

UNLESS the community has HOA and HOA is taking care of all the landscaping etc.

2) If the lease that the tenant agreed to included them maintaining the front yard/ landscaping - is it reasonable to deduct a 1 time yard clean-up from their security deposit? 

In recent years, the world has witnessed a regulatory awakening in data privacy enforcement, a development driven by increasing consumer demands for transparency and the global proliferation of privacy laws.

Are there any recommendations from anyone who have found certain news sites or data sources to extract data from that has helped them understand the current market landscape in their target area?

The average price per land for urban infill going 6-12 stories high on a higher density product is about 5 million an acre up to about 25 million an acre. downtown market premiums I've seen at the highest are 1200 a sq ft. in columbus you can get land about 1.5 million per acre downtown at best price, sells for about 600 a sq ft max, very little competition compared to miami. tampa I didn't really look at too much because miami has 22 zip codes that you can build at least 6 or 8 stories on and just a much better landscape than other markets. tampa is a little bit bigger than columbus but in my opinion more of a suburban market. miami is landlocked and very limited so everything is in redevelopment. both are amazing opportunities but the barrier to entry is much higher in Miami with the smallest plots of land infill going for at least 1.5 million I would say in areas like Wynwood Norte, Wynwood, etc. we looked all over but prefer east of 95 due to the condominium opportunities. multifamily is very strong in both markets but the condo premiums make it almost silly not to do one from the start and the use of deposits versus a single asset lease up and disposition is a longer sales cycle than the condo buildings being sold out prior to completion.

Understand the neighborhoods, pricing trends, and rental demand to make informed decisions.Stay Open-Minded: The real estate landscape is constantly changing.

VTSTRA.org is a great resource for regulatory info.Hope this helps - best of luck!